A darling of the Independent Spirit Awards and South by Southwest, Trey Edward Shults' Krisha feels like exactly what it is: a short film that has been padded out to feature-length. Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) is a recovering addict who joins her extended family for Thanksgiving for the first time in years, only to find that the welcome is not as warm as she might have hoped, and her own resolve begins to unravel. Fairchild's performance is terrific, but many stretches without her fall flat as observational slice-of-life moments; movies shot in a home need not feel like home movies, but much of Krisha is filler, unless one finds broheims arm-wrestling and/or actual-wrestling to be interesting. What should be the most powerful subplot finds Krisha trying to reconcile with her nephew Trey (played by director Shults, her real-life nephew). Unfortunately, Shults lacks noticeable personality or charisma as an actor — and Krisha raving about how her on-screen nephew has always been a gifted filmmaker and should be a director instead of having gone into "business management" is downright cringe-worthy. The sad thing is, Shults does indeed display some giftedness on a visual level, keeping his limited locations interesting with numerous camera tricks and movements. But as calling cards go, Krisha should have remained a short.
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